This application involves a new use for a spent laying hen which prior to this invention was either discarded as waste, rendered for animal consumption, or limitedly utilized, for pull meat. Specifically, this application is directed to a process for obtaining ground meat product for human consumption from spent egg laying hens.
The chicken industry is made up of meat production chickens and egg production chickens. These are very distinct types of chicken. The modern meat-type chicken is derived from the deep-breasted Cornish breed and has been selected with an emphasis on the production of meat rather than eggs. For meat production, the majority of the poultry market consists of broilers. Broiler chickens are genetically bred for meat consumption and are usually used for whole and cut meat products. Accordingly, through genetics these broilers have developed large breasts and have a large quantity of muscle meat. With the abundant quantity of meat existing on broilers, it is economical to process broilers through a typical processing line. A typical process involves slaughtering the chicken, defeathering the chicken, eviscerating the chicken and then separating the chicken into multiple parts. This process is labor intensive, but due to the amount and quality of meat produced is cost effective. A typical broiler chicken may produce 4.7 pounds and a typical line can run 8400 chickens per hour. The typical production costs for processing the chicken is 8 cents per pound. The current wholesale price per pound per broiler meat varies depending on the ultimate consumer product sold with a price ranging from $1.35 to $1.75 per pound of breast meat.
Egg production chickens however, constitute an entirely distinct industry from meat production chickens. Egg production chickens are primarily birds of the White Leghorn breed. The leghorns have been genetically breed for producing eggs, not meat. Consequently, these leghorns have smaller, skimpier bodies than broilers, and typically only weigh 2.3 to 3 pounds and yield very small amounts of meat. Because of the differences in body size and tissue and bone composition when compared to broilers, leghorns that are no longer useful for egg production, also referred to as xe2x80x9cspent hens,xe2x80x9d are typically not as desirable for use as whole or cut meat products. As genetic selection for efficient egg production has progressed, the quantity of meat from a leghorn has substantially decreased. Additionally, the genetically superior egg laying hens suffer from extremely fragile bones, resulting in broken bones upon any handling of the birds. The fragility also makes processing spent hens difficult since broken bones are likely to be found in the meat yield. Accordingly, the cost of processing a spent hen far outweighs the value of the yield of meat obtained, making the process inefficient and cost prohibitive for obtaining edible poultry. Consequently, it is not feasible to process leghorns or spent hens for their meat once they have completed their use as egg layers.
One of the only alternatives for processing spent hens is through a rendering plant. This fact has been published by the Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development which has published the following:
What do they do with spent layers anyway? As genetic selection for more effacing egg production progresses, meat yield of leghorn chickens has reduced substantially. Because of the high calcium requirement in producing eggshells, the laying hen has very fragile bones, which break easily during handling. Because of the low yield, and processing difficulties due to fragile bones, spent hens are of very little value to processors. Developments in poultry by-products rendering technology has allowed for larger number of birds to be rendered. Poultry Research Center Newsxe2x80x94Vol. 6 No. 1, April 1997.
The problem with spent hens has also been reported by the University of Florida Department of Dairy and Poultry Sciences which has published the following:
Spent hen meat has traditionally come from leghorn chickens which are table egg layers. These birds only weight 2.5 to 3 pounds and yield very small amounts of meat, and have been traditionally used in canned soups and in some school lunch products. However, today there is a large supply of broiler breeding hens available that weigh 7 to 8 pounds each and yield significantly more meat than the leghorn layers. This has created a large volume of leghorns with no available market. The poultry industry is faced with the dilemma/challenge of finding markets for the leghorn layers. (emphasis added).
Accordingly, disposal of spent hens has also become a costly and inefficient operation for poultry farmers. Some egg producers have difficulty finding a processing plant that will take a spent flock, even with payment for disposal. Most spent hens are crated, transported to slaughter then buried or incinerated at a location remote from the production facility. The cost associated with gathering and transporting the hens is not recoverable. In addition, the issue of providing humane treatment is complicated due to the breakable, fragile bones of the leghorns, making hen disposal a potential public relations problem.
As a result of the economic, welfare and public relations issues described above, more an d more egg producers are disposing of spent hens on site at the laying production facility. After slaughtering, the hens are incinerated or buried in large pits or composted. In Georgia, alligator farms have been established for disposing the spent hens. Because poultry farmers raise hundreds of thousands of birds at a time, and because the life cycle of a laying hen is only about one year, carcass disposal quickly becomes unmanageable. Land used for burial sites is quickly depleted, and the biological hazards resulting from decaying birds can create unhealthy conditions. Currently, over 100 million spent hens are disposed of each year.
This problem not only exists for commercial egg producing facilities, but also for state penitentiaries. For instance, in Georgia, the state penitentiaries raise leghorns in order to produce table eggs used in the penitentiaries. However, these penitentiaries also have the dilemma of disposing of the leghorns once their useful live as egg layers has expired. Yet, unlike the commercial egg producing companies, these state penitentiaries do not have adequate means of disposing of the leghorns i.e. they lack landfill space, don""t have incinerators on site, or don""t have composts on site. Consequently, these leghorns must be moved off-site for disposal. This method is not cost-effective and the costs associated with disposing the leghorns impinges on the purpose of raising the leghorns in the first place at the penitentiaries, namely to be economically self-sufficient when possible.
Alternative methods for dead bird disposal are vitally important to the poultry farmer and the environment. Researchers are investigating processing leghorns for use in creating animal feed, pet foods and for use in zoos, and as a nitrogen source for artificial soils. However, the use of spent hens for poultry food products would be the most desirable solution, since less biological material would be buried and poultry farmers would realize an income from this current waste commodity.
One use of spent hens for food is accomplished via the use of mechanical deboning machines which results in a class of food product known as mechanically separated meat. Typically, mechanically separated poultry is produced by high pressure machinery that separates bone from skeletal muscle tissue and other edible tissue by first crushing the bone and then forcing the bone through a sieve or screen The result is a blend of soft tissue with a paste-like consistency and cake batter form The resulting product differs materially from other poultry products that arc deboned by hand. Because of its texture and consistency, mechanically separated poultry is well-suited for use as an additive in hot dogs, bologna, nuggets, patties, sausages and lunch meat products. However, mechanically separated meat is a lower meat quality and accordingly receives a lower price in the marketplace.
While attempts in the past have been undertaken to mechanically debone leghorns this has not been done in a large scale manner. Mechanical deboning has generally been done only in a limited area as a means to identify some utilization of the leghorn meat. Processing of leghorns is not cost efficient since the costs to prepare the leghorn for rendering processing is 25 cents per pound, and the price received for mechanically separated meat is 18 cents per pound. Consequently, processing of leghorns is not actively conducted by meat producers unless subsidized either by the government or the egg-laying industry to compensate for the cost difference. The costs associated with preparing the leghorn carcass for processing is greater than the price received for the low quality mechanical separated meat product and consequently, the meat producing industry has no incentive to receive the leghorn into their processing plants.
Thus, while it is know how to process leghorns in plants, this knowledge is insufficient to establish a solution to the problem associated with the utilization of leghorns. Consequently, as both the respective agricultural departments of Alberta and University of Florida have stated the poultry industry is faced with the dilemma/challenge of finding markets for the leghorn layers. What has genetically been developed as a superior egg layer, is now primarily a bio-hazard.
Accordingly, there is a need for an economical means of disposing of spent hen/leghorns;
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of cost-effectively processing leghorns;
It is still another object of the present invention to produce from leghorns consumable ground poultry product;
It is another object of the present invention to produce a consumable ground poultry product from spent laying hens using a mechanical de-boning machine equipped with a filter and temperature and pressure controls.
The above objectives are accomplished according to the present invention by providing a method of processing leghorns which enables the leghorns to be utilized in ready to eat markets. Briefly described, the present invention comprises a process for forming consumable ground poultry product from spent laying hens. The ground leghorn has an appearance of ground beef and a calcium content less than 0.175 %. The temperature and pressure of the process is optimized to separate the bone and meat from the leghorn carcass while maintaining the texture and form of the meat to resemble ground beef.